twenty-two miles '" '■iri^umfprPUfA, a"'' ^'^t^ Plutarch 1 /-aTipil nn atrainst thp triumvir r>P^n^M^B. AugllStUS
and Livj' inform us that the spoil of it was equal to that of Carthage. It was the oldest of the Creek colonies being founded h} Corinthians, and in a manner consistei 1 offour cities united into one; or, asoth ers express it,it wa'? called quadruplex as being divided into four parts, Ac radiiia, Tyche, Ne- apolis, and the isl and of Ortygia The first of these contained the fa mous Temple of Jupiter, the secoiul the Temple of J'ortune, the third a large amphithea- tre, and a wonder- ful statue of Apollo in the midst of a spacious square, and the fourth the two temples of Di- ana and jNIinerva, and the renowned fountain of Arethii- sa. For about two hundre<l and fifty years the city made little noise in the world; but in the next two hundred and eightj' it be- came conspicuous in war, in sea ti-ade, and in wealth, un- der its kings Geloii, Dionysius, elder and younger, Dion, Agathocles, and Hicro.
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Plan of Syracuse and Us Jtfiuvirous.
SYRACUSE
95
SYRIA
restored Syracuse, as also Catana and Centoripa, which last had contributed nuich to the successful issue of his struggle with Sextus I'omiieius. Yet the island < )itygia and a very small portion of the mainland ad- joining sufficed for the new colonists and the renniant of the former population. But the site of Syracuse renderetl it a convenient place for the African corn- ships to touch at, for the harbor was an excellent one, and the fountain Arethusa in the island fm'nished an unfailing supply of excellent water. Tiie jirevalent wind in this part of the JNIediterranean is the W.N.W. This would carry the vessels from the corn region ly- ing eastward of Cape Bon, round the southern point of Sicily, Cape Pachynus, to the eastern shore of the isl- and. Creeping up under the shelter of this, they would lie either in the harbor of jMessana or at Khegium, un- til the wind changed to a southern point and enabled them to fetch the Campanian harbor I'liteoli or (iaeta, or to proceed as far as Ostia. In crossing from Africa to Sicily, if the wind was excessive, or varied two or three points to the northward, they would naturally bear up for Malta; and this had probably been the case with the "Twins," the ship in which Paul found a pas- sage after his shipwreck on the coast of that island. Arrived in Malta, they watched for the opportunity of a wind to take them westward, and with such a one they readily made Sj'racuse. To proceed farther while it continued blowing would have exposed them to the dangers of a lee-shore, and accordingly they remained " three days." They then, the wind having probably shifted into a westerly quarter so as to give them smooth water, coasted the shore and made (TrspieXSoi^- r6C KaTijvrljrTajxti' £('c) Khegium. After one day there, the wind got round still more and blew from the south ; they therefore weighed, and arrived at Puteoli in the course of the second day of the run (Acts xxviii, 12-14).
In the time of Paul's voyage, Sicily did not supply the Romans with corn to the extent it had done in the time of king Hiero, and in a less degree as late as the time of Cicero. It is an error, however, to suppose that the soil was exhausted; for Strabo expressly says that fur corn and some other productions, Sicily even sur- passed Italy. But the country had become depopu- lated by tlie long series of wars, and when it passed into the hands of Kome, her great nobles turned vast tracts into pasture. In the time of Augustus the whole of the centre of the island was occupied in this manner, and among its exports (except from the neighborhood of the volcanic region, where excellent wine was pro- duced), fat stock, hides, and wool appear to have been the prominent articles. These grazing and horse-breed- ing farms were kept up by slave labor; and this was the reason that the whole island was in a chronic state of disturbance, owing to the slaves continually running away and f<irming bands of brigands. Sometimes these became so formidable as to refpure the aid of regular military o]jerations to put them down; a circumstance of which Tiberius Gracchus made use as an argument in favor of his measure of an Agrarian law (Appian, B. C. i, 9), which would have reconverted the spacious grass-lands into small arable farms cultivated by Ro- man freemen.
In the time of Paul there were onlj- five Roman col-
Coin of Syracnse.
onies in Sicily, of which Syracuse was one. The oth- ers were Catana, 'I'auromenium, Therma?, and Tyndaris. Jlessana too, although not a colony, was a town tilled with a Roman pojiulation. Probably its inhabitants were merchants connected with the wine-trade of the neigh- borhood, of which Messana was the shipping port. Syr- acuse and Panormus were important as strategical points, and a Roman force was kept up at each. Sicilians, Sica- nians, Jlorgetians, and Iberians (aboriginal inhabitants of the island, or very early settlers), still existed in the interior, in wliat exact political condition it is impossi- ble to say ; but most likely in that of villeins. Some few towns are mentioned by Pliny as having the Latin franchise, and some as paying a fixed tribute; but, with the excejition of the l\ve colonies, the owners of the soil of the island were mainly great absentee proprietors, and almost all its produce came to Rome (Strabo, vi, 2 ; Appian, B. C. iv, 8i sq. ; v, 15-1 18 ; Cicero, J'eir. iv, 53 ; Pliny, //. A', iii, 8). — Smith. For a full account of ancient Syracuse, see Smith's Diet, of Geog. s. v., and the literature there cited ; also Gciller, De Situ et Orif/ine Syracusarum (Lips. 1818) ; for the modern cit}-, Biide- ker, Southern Italy, p. 308 sq. See Sicily.